Vaccines...vaccinate you. No kidding. True story.

Did you know that

1. If a child walks before he crawls, he'll have reading problems when he gets older?
2. The Color Code test is one of the most accurate ways of discovering someone's personality?
3. Listening to Mozart will make your child smarter?
4. If a child crawls before she sits up on her own, she'll have balance problems as an adult?
5. Men are smarter than women because their brains are bigger?
6. Your handwriting reveals a lot about who you are?
7. If a women tries to move a large piece of furniture, she could do serious damage to her uterus?

Did you know that everything on that list is not true?

You know what else isn't true?

     8. Vaccinations cause mental health disorders, specifically autism.

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There's this thing called belief perseverance. It's when someone continues to believe something even though it has either already been completely discredited (proven to be false) or never had any evidence to prove it in the first place. There are examples of belief perseverance all over the place (superstitions, anyone?), but the vaccination one is, in my opinion, the best example there is to date.

One can't get upset at those who believed it when the study came out: It was presented by a doctoral expert. It was published in a top scientific journal. It was groundbreaking.

It was also 100% falsified. Here's what went down.

Dr. Andrew Wakefield was a scientist who, in 1998, presented a study proving that the MMR (Measels, Mumps, and Rubella) vaccination causes Autism.

For those who are unfamiliar with what happens when a groundbreaking study is published in the scientific community, here's a crash-course:

1. Groundbreaking study is published
1. If a study was (1) done correctly and (2) can be generalized to the entire population, then anyone should be able to replicate it and get the same results.
1. This is because the more boring parts of the research article contain all the details necessary to replicate the study wherever and whenever you may be.
2. The study is replicated, results are collected, a conclusion is made, and the study is submitted for publication as one that either supports or opposes the original. 

blogs.discoverymagazine.com

Well, the groundbreaking study was published, and scientists all over the place started to replicate it. I mean, if this wasn't an isolated thing and the MMR vaccination really causes Autism, we need to know. The Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) was reported to cause the virus in many people. Because the studies everywhere found it to be true, the OPV is no longer used in the USA as of the year 2000.

But with the MMR vaccine, no one was able to replicate Wakefield's results. At all. 

In fact, not even Wakefield himself could replicate his results when other scientists began questioning him about it. 

Fiona Godlee, the British Medical Journal's (a top scientific journal) editor-in-chief, states the following regarding the study:

It's one thing to have a bad study, a study full of error, and for the authors then to admit that they made errors. But in this case, we have a very different picture of what seems to be a deliberate attempt to create an impression that there was a link by falsifying the data. Source

Here's why no one could replicate Wakefield's study:

• The 12 children who participated in the study were hand-picked.
• In a correctly conducted study, the test subjects are (1) as randomly selected as possible and (2) you always have at least two groups: in this case, both groups would have received the MMR vaccine, but the groups would have been separated by those who had autism and those who did not.
• He falsified the medical history of all 12 of his test subjects, claiming they all had developed autism after receiving the MMR vaccine.
• Five of the children had confirmed developmental problems before receiving the vaccine
• Three of the children didn't even have autism...and still don't.
• A thorough investigation showed no doubt that Dr. Wakefield was responsible for the falsification.



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• Falsified medical histories in a study focusing on a medical problem lead to falsified data, statistics, and almost everything else.
• He was being paid $674,000 to conduct his study by a law firm whose intent was to sue vaccine manufacturers--a serious ethical issue in the scientific community.
• Most of the co-authors on the study (other experts who worked with Dr. Wakefield) officially withdrew their names from the study after this claim was confirmed.
• The children were "subjected to unnecessary procedures like a colonoscopy and lumbar puncture" (Source)

In the end, and after what was called the "British General Medical Council's most exhaustive fit-to-practice hearing in its history (Source)," Wakefield was charged with a multitude of things, including child abuse, and his professional license was revoked; he is no longer allowed to practice medicine in Britain.

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But people don't care. They still believe that a vaccine can cause autism in their children. Why? It is, in part, due to a lack of knowledge; many people never knew that Wakefield's study was discredited. But what about those who do know, yet continue in belief perseverance? Emotion. Fear. If you can convince people to be afraid of something, very little will change their minds. Wakefield's results caused mass panic across the world. Even though it has been completely discredited, the belief perseverance is so strong that fear has spread to every other vaccine as well. Not only that, but now people are claiming that vaccination causes other mental problems, like ADHD. Celebrities and other loud people with no scientific background whatsoever have also spoken out against vaccines...and people believe them. 

Parents discuss whether or not they should vaccinate their children. Those who decide not to depend on the herd immunity of those who have been vaccinated.  

Outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. Interactive map here

"In California, pertussis (whooping cough) has reappeared at its highest levels since 1958. Outbreaks of measles are reoccurring. Most parents have never seen the disease or realize that 242,000 children a year worldwide die from it, so they underestimate the risk of not vaccinating. . . . Across America, vaccinations have fallen below the acceptable "herd immunity" rate of 90 percent. In Minnesota, an outbreak of the Hib (Haemophilus influenza type B) meningitis virus killed an infant whose parents were against vaccinations. In the UK, vaccination rates fell from 92 to 73 percent. In 2008, measles was declared endemic in England and Wales. In northern Germany, an outbreak of mumps in a school where the parents opposed vaccinations revealed that of the 71 children infected, 68 hadn't been immunized." (Source)

Why aren't people acting on the correct information about the Wakefield study and getting their kids vaccinated? What are they waiting for? 

They are waiting for convincing evidence that vaccination doesn't cause mental health problems. Even in 2011, there had been replications of Wakefield's study (that confirmed nothing), but no one had conducted a study that showed the exact opposite of what Wakefield did. 

That all changed in March of 2013. 

A study was made that included 1,000 children, all of which had been given the MMR vaccine. Of that 1,000, 250 children in the group had been diagnosed with autism. The researchers checked the antigens--the stuff in vaccine shots that helps the body create immunity--that each child had (as in, all 1,000 of them individually). They compared the antigens of the children with autism to the ones of the children without autism, looking for something different in the antigens of the 250 children that would explain a link between MMR and autism.

Guess what? They found nothing.

If a controlled, replicate-able study of 1,000 children is not more convincing than a fraudulent study of 12 children, I don't know what is. 

Even Geraldine Dawson, the top scientist of the advocacy group Autism Speaks, has this to say regarding the 2013 study:

As we home in on what is causing autism, I think we are going to have fewer and fewer questions about some of the things that don't appear to be causing [it.] (Source)

Those things include proper prenatal nutrition and exercise, infant exposure to toxins in the air, the effects of medications and injections used prenatally, pesticides in baby food, less time spent outside, and, of course, genetics.

Research hasn't been done very much (or at all) in these areas because the people who are financially supporting the research are having a hard time getting off of the vaccination train. They are insisting on continued research into vaccinations, thus leaving no money available to search for what Ellen Wright Clayton, a professor at Vanderbilt University, calls "the real causes." She says: "I hope that [the study of the 1,000 children] will get a lot of play. . . . by focusing on the question of whether vaccines cause autism spectrum disorders, [science is] missing the opportunity to look at what the real causes are. It's not vaccines."

The Conduct Disorder Trio

The illnesses in what I call the Conduct Disorder Trio--Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), Conduct Disorder (CD), and Antisocial Personal Personality Disorder (ASPD)--are becoming more common among children, teens, and adults. (You'll see why when I talk about the main causes of them.) I'm not just talking about bullying here; most bullies actually don't have a diagnose-able conduct problem. There are usually other negative things at work in their lives that can be easily resolved through proper guidance.

Conduct disorders are much worse.

Generally speaking, ODD is diagnosed in children, CD in teens, and ASPD in adults. However, if the symptoms are severe enough, one could be diagnosed with a disorder that's typically out of the normal age range.

FYI: All of the symptoms posted here come straight out of the DSM (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).


Childhood: Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)
So, there's childhood moodiness, tantrum-throwing stages, general fussiness, and so on. But ODD is not your run-of-the-mill childhood crankiness. To start, the following four behaviors have to be going on for at least six months before a licensed professional can diagnose your child with ODD:

Negativity            Defiance            Disobedience            Hostility directed toward authority figures

Those four behaviors can lead to other things like...

...on a regular basis.

The child with ODD will also usually believe that his/her behavior is not defiant; the statement will usually be made that "unreasonable demands" are being placed on him/her...by adults, of course. This, along with the above mentioned behaviors, leads the child to have feelings of anger and resentment.


Adolescence: Conduct Disorder (CD)
As per the DSM: "Conduct Disorder is characterized by a repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate societal norms or rules are violated." Like ODD, there is a time frame in which symptoms must be happening in order for diagnosis to be made. For CD, at least three of the following symptoms have to have happened within the past 12 months, with at least one of those three having happened within the past 6 months:

In addition, the DSM states that "the disturbance in behavior causes . . . significant impairment in social, academic, or occupational functioning."

One person describes this disorder perfectly. In fact, he's Psychology's poster-boy for it.

Source for textbook information

It's important to know that most kids/teens who act out don't have ODD or CD. They are just in a place in their lives where the frontal lobe of their brains (which controls things like logic) aren't developed enough to understand the concept of "Hey, this might not be the best idea."


Adulthood: Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD)
When psychologists talk about being antisocial, they're not talking about not wanting to go to parties. A diagnosis for ASPD is possible in people 18 years old and older and it can be quite disturbing. There are severe cases of this disorder in which an adult committed murder because someone was irritating him/her. The perpetrator (with ASPD) knew that it's against the law, but felt absolutely no guilt for it.

Here are the symptoms:

It is also important to understand that these symptoms may not be ASPD if the person has schizophrenia or bipolar disorder; the symptoms may be the same, but if it really is something like schizophrenia, the reason for the symptoms will be different and thus, so will treatment.


Causes
It's no secret that children need consistency in their lives. There are countless studies out there showing time and time again that, regardless of the type of family you come from (single parent, LGBT, working parents, etc.), consistency at home has the ability to prevent countless problems later in life. It's interesting to report that while there are many possible causal influences to ODD, CD, and ASPD, a majority of cases are caused by a lack of consistency and stability in the lives of those who have it. Here's are some examples:

gettingagile.com

Abuse or neglect
Inconsistent discipline
Lack of supervision
Lack of parental involvement
Parents in a troubled marriage
Family financial problems
A high-tension parental divorce
Changing schools frequently
Moving a lot, especially in the case of foster children in which they frequently move by themselves, without a family.

If the parents have a history of ADHD or other conduct problems that are not under control, that can also cause enough instability to activate the disorder in their child/children. It's harder to control your own children when you cannot control yourself.

In many cases of ASPD, MRIs have recorded various brain abnormalities that could very likely be a causal factor in the disorder.


Treatment
Because ODD can evolve into CD and likewise into ASPD, the earlier the disorder is caught, the better and the easier it will be to treat.

Theoretically, treatment is simple. In real-life...not so much.

As with most disorders, therapy is a good start to helping the client (1) find alternate ways to resolve anger, (2) build moral reasoning skills, and (3) develop impulse control. Specialized therapy forms focus on other aspects of the clients' life. For example: Family therapy helps improve interaction and meaningful communication among family members; Parent Management Training gives the parents new techniques and skills to change their child's behavior in a positive way.

Responsibility and accountability are two principles tying the three above-mentioned things together; you must help the person understand that "what you're doing is actually wrong. Regardless of how you rationalize what you did or who you would like to blame your actions on, there is no place known to mankind where what you have done is acceptable. Things like this are against the rules everywhere; You can't say that 'nobody told me it was bad.' Your actions are your own and you need to take responsibility for them."

That's really hard to do when your client either feels no guilt for what he/she has done or honestly believes that it wasn't actually his/her fault. In fact, most who have ASPD and have committed a serious crime usually end up in prison. While aware that they have done something bad in the eyes of society, they still feel no guilt for their crimes.

In the case of conduct disorders, there's no medicinal fix--there's no medicine that will teach someone to have a basic moral compass and harness anger. Therapy and consistent application of said therapy outside of a session has to happen.

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Knowledge is power. In a majority of cases, these disorders are 100% preventable. Consistency works wonders. Even if a child may have ODD, the sooner someone notices and reports it to someone who can help, the sooner the child will be back on his/her feet to lead a life free of detention centers and prison bars.

Schizophrenia: Part 2

Causes?
There are tons of theories surrounding the cause of schizophrenia and, honestly, it's probably a combination of many things.

Research has done a lot of looking into genetics for a cause. Wanna know a secret? If you want to see how much something is genetically based, study identical twins. Since they're genetically...identical...what happens

to one should happen to the other, right? If it's a 100% genetic thing, then yes.

www.schizophrenia,com

When it comes to schizophrenia, research has found that if one identical twin has it, there's about a 50% chance of the other having it...

...which, in layman's terms, means that you might as well flip a coin: Heads--he/she has it, Tails--he/she doesn't...

...which shows that schizophrenia isn't all genetic. There are other factors involved.

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www.schizophrenia.com

We also know that, generally speaking, the noticeable onset of it (the first psychotic breakdown) is in one's late teens-early 20's. It's likely that the person had it before that, but the symptoms were minimal and not seen as abnormal. The causal theory that coincides with the time of onset is the stress theory.

It's usually in one's late teens/early 20's that one moves out of the house, goes to college, gets married, starts a family, begins a career, and the list goes on. That causes stress. If it's too much to handle...

...yeah.

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www.sciencealert.com.au

Another causal theory is the dopamine theory. Dopamine is a chemical messenger in the brain. This theory suggests that there are more dopamine messengers in the brain than it actually needs. Thus, the brain gets confused with all of these access messages going around.

The only problem with this theory is that, if dopamine were the only cause, than a simple dopamine-regulating medication would fix it. It doesn't.

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In other news, research has also found that:

1. In adoption studies, if one of your biological parents has it, your risk of developing it is higher if you stay with that parent, as opposed to being adopted.
2. Those with lower SES (socioeconomic status)--meaning lower class in society--are at a higher risk for developing it.
3. It's becoming more common in people using cannabis (marijuana).
4. Living in a stable family environment can cut one's risk for developing schizophrenia in half.

Treatments

It's not easy to treat schizophrenia because as I said in part 1, there is no cure; the only thing that anyone can do is work to control it. Many counselors will be working with someone for over a year before even daring to give the schizophrenia diagnosis because it really is that big of a deal. By way of treatment, here's what we do have:

Medications are always recommended. The type may differ depending on the person, but a medication of some type is always used. There is never a 100% "I'm cured" response to the medication, but the research has shown that a placebo does not work in a vast majority of cases.

In addition, some type of therapy is also always undergone. Commonly used therapies include:

1. Family Therapy
1. This involves working with the person as well as his/her family in order to give him/her the support system needed to learn to control the symptoms
2. Social Skills Training (SST)
1. This does what its name implies: Teaches the person the proper social skills needed in order to interact appropriately with the world around him/her
3. Milieu Therapy
1. If the case is severe enough, milieu therapy involves institutionalizing the person so that he/she has the appropriate professional help at all times. 
4. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
1. This is the most successful therapy used to treat schizophrenia. The man for whom the movie A

   

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   Beautiful Mind was based on was interviewed regarding his experience. He is known as one who "overcame schizophrenia." When asked how he did it, he just laughed and said that he didn't; he still has schizophrenia. He just learned how to question everything that didn't seem normal. Thus, he has regained control of his life.
2. That's what CBT does: it trains the patient to question even their own thoughts in order to control them.

When he said that he learned to control his thoughts, please don't think that doing so was an easy task. Around 80-85% of those who are in treatment for schizophrenia go off treatment (stop taking their medication and practicing the techniques learned in therapy) once they are left to themselves.

If you ever meet someone who has schizophrenia, I hope that reading this post has helped to gain a greater understanding of what they're going through.

Schizophrenia: Part 1

First off, some myth-busting:

Despite the movie Me, Myself and Irene, as well as the quote that "I used to have schizophrenia, but we're okay now," schizophrenia has nothing to do with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID, commonly known as multiple personalities).

The reason many people think it has to do with DID is because they think that if you have multiple personalities, you talk to yourself. This is not true. Most people with DID don't even know that their alters exist. But I'll go more into DID later.

If you would like a good example of what schizophrenia really is, watch the movie A Beautiful Mind.

Now that we've cleared that up, on to the fun stuff:

We all think to ourselves. It keeps our brains--and our lives--organized. We all feel paranoid at times. It's a natural defense/protection mechanism. We all have felt defensive of something that we consider to be ours. As we accomplish certain tasks in life, we may feel a sense of grandeur associated with said accomplishment, and that's perfectly okay.

But what happens when some of those things get out of hand...and out of our control?

Welcome to schizophrenia.

Symptoms
There are a few main types of symptoms that mental health pros look for in someone who might have schizophrenia. One main symptom is hallucinations. About 20% of hallucinations experienced by someone with schizophrenia are visual, 70% are auditory, and 10% are another type (smell, touch, etc.).

Since it's the auditory hallucinations (hearing something that isn't really there) that most people think about when they hear of someone with schizophrenia, I'm going to focus on that part of the hallucination category.

Everyone talks to themselves in their heads. It's called self-talk. As children, we talked to ourselves out loud while we were learning how to talk, but as we grew older, that self-talk went internal. If you were to have an MRI, a certain part of your brain called Broca's area would light up while you were thinking to yourself.

Now here's the kicker: There's another area of the brain called Wernicke's area that's in charge of hearing.

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So, it would make sense that this is the area that would activate if you're having an auditory hallucination, right? Not true with schizophrenia. Neuroscientists (people who study the brain) have found that if someone with schizophrenia has an auditory hallucination, Broca's area--not Wernicke's area--will light up.

So, the latest theory is that people with schizophrenia who are having auditory hallucinations are actually hearing their own self-talk, but not in their own voice.

Generally, if you hear someone talking to you, do you think back your answer? Of course not. You talk to the person. This is why it looks like people with schizophrenia are talking to themselves; according to this theory, they are.

How would it be if you were hearing a strange voice and couldn't get it out of your head because it was, in fact, your voice?

That would be enough to drive anyone crazy.

But wait. There's more.

Delusions. These don't just show up every once in a while. These delusions are thoughts that the person will organize his/her entire life around. There are generally three types of delusions associated with schizophrenia: Delusions of grandeur, delusions of persecution, and delusions of jealousy (defined as the need to be vigilant in guarding something). One may have only one of these types of delusions or he/she may experience all three.

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"A delusion of grandeur is the fixed, false belief that one possesses superior qualities such as genius, fame, omnipotence, or wealth" (source). Many years ago I met a woman with schizophrenia who had this symptom. She had visual hallucinations of Jesus and his 12 disciples walking out of her wardrobe, talking with her as they walked past and disappeared through the wall of her kitchen. This lead her to put herself on a religious pedestal and even go to school for a degree in theology in order to follow the instructions given by the figures that came out of her wardrobe.

Other delusions of grandeur may be associated with the idea that you are a high-profile secret service agent trying to solve a case, the president of a country (the "real" one is either a phony or an impostor), or that you have made an amazing discovery that                                                                                                                     others just don't seem to understand.

The woman I mentioned also had the symptoms of persecution. She fully believed that her next-door neighbors were international spies who had attempted to kill her on multiple occasions. This type of delusion leads to extreme paranoia: every time her neighbors walked past her house, she was convinced that they were scoping out their next attack. When she saw her neighbors across the street go to a dinner party at "the enemies'" home, she decided that they had been accepted into the spy ring. To protect herself, she had a 6-foot high cement wall built around her entire property with a metal, windowless door as the only way in or out.

In the place where this woman lives, treatment options are minimal and, for the most part, practically non-existent simply due to lack of resources and information. How would it be to live a life in genuine fear of everyone around you?

Continuing on Mental Illness

It's been a while since my last mental illness post. The next few disorders I'm addressing are more complicated than GAD, Panic, OCD, and Depression. They've taken a bit longer to put together.

I have a brother-in-law who, while in college, has taken many chemistry classes. On my end, the last chemistry class I took was my sophomore year in high school...11 years ago. While I've seen chemistry all around me since then, I wouldn't even dream of giving my brother-in-law my opinions regarding chemistry rules, equations, reactions, etc. I simply do not have the educational background that he has in that subject.

Likewise, I know of many people who have strong, yet inaccurate opinions regarding (1) mental illness in general, (2) mental illness in a friend/relative, and (3) the capacity of mental health professionals in general to do their jobs...even though they do not have the educational background to really know what they're talking about. Hence, those who have been diagnosed with a mental illness usually go about it this way:

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I've heard people say that those who have depression are just lazy and using depression as an excuse.

Those who have depression would strongly disagree.

I've heard people say that those with anxiety disorders are just insecure drama kings/queens who freak out over little things to get attention.

Those who have an anxiety disorder probably wish that such an idea were really all it was.

Some people disagree with a mental health professionals' diagnosis of a friend/relative even though they are not mental health professionals and haven't taken anything more than a general psychology college class (which doesn't cover mental illness), if they've even taken a psychology class at all. They feel that because they've known the friend/relative longer than the psychologist/psychiatrist, they must know more about what's going on.

But that's where the bias comes in: because the person is so close to you, you have a hard time seeing things from a completely objective point of view. That's why it's against many professional ethical codes for said professionals to treats close friends or family members. Whether or not you care to admit it, close friends and family members are always biased in some way; some biases are good while others aren't. That's why it's so important to follow the professional's instructions so that you can know how to be a positive support system, instead of either dismissing the problem completely or "treating it" the wrong way.

My next posts will be on Schizophrenia, Dissociative Identity Disorder (a.k.a. multiple personalities), and what I will call the Conduct Disorder Trio: Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Conduct Disorder, and Antisocial Personality Disorder.

Like GAD, OCD, Panic, and Depression, there are many people out there who see these disorders as an excuse for eccentric or bad behavior (especially the Conduct Disorder Trio). Many people blame psychologists and psychiatrists for giving a person the excuse he/she needs to "act out." And you know what? Maybe it did start from bad behavior; maybe it was bad parenting or a bully at school; perhaps genetics are the culprit. Regardless of the cause, the disorder does exist and needs to be treated.

When we get sick, It's nice to be around people who are willing to be there and support you. Likewise, the goal of these posts is (1) to facilitate basic understanding of these disorders and (2) encourage respect and support for those who have been diagnosed with them. The more support and understanding they have, the easier it is to overcome/control what they're going through.

www.multitaskingmumma.com